All of the plants on Molly Hendry’s wish list for the Colonial Lake park makeover had to be vetted — preferably before she became emotionally attached. If a plant wasn’t salt-tolerant, it simply didn’t make the cut.
The plants that made up the old garden survived two major hurricanes and multiple feet of saltwater flooding. The park likely will experience more extreme weather in the future, which meant the new plants needed to be tough, she said.
Hendry, a garden designer from Birmingham, Ala., was hired in December 2024 to work with the Charleston Parks Conservancy and transform Colonial Lake park’s three acres into an environmentally-adaptive landscape, The Post and Courier previously reported. The $127,000 makeover aims to make the park more resilient to climate change and sea-level rise.
The conservancy cleared out old plantings last year, including bully, invasive plants that overran the park’s flowerbeds, and removed the hackberry trees along Broad Street that died from saltwater inundation, Hendry said. Hendry’s task was to choose plants that could withstand the park’s often-harsh weather conditions: direct, full sunlight; extreme heat; tidal flooding; and tropical storms.
Now, the conservancy and volunteers are bringing Hendry's vision to life. The revitalization project is on track to wrap up by October 2025. To celebrate, the conservancy is planning the inaugural Bloom Charleston Festival this fall, but parkgoers will notice changes along Broad and Beaufain streets and Rutledge Avenue before then. Already, new palmetto trees line Broad Street, and freshly planted shrubs and flowers are taking root.
The revitalization project includes replacing vulnerable and invasive plant species with those better suited to withstand shifting weather patterns and saltwater.
Hendry wanted to make sure the new plants offered “seasonal layers” for locals who enjoy the park year-round. Colonial Lake is a popular recreation spot for people who run, walk their dogs, sunbathe and read books on the benches overlooking the water.
“I met a lady who lives in West Ashley and a lady who lives in Mount Pleasant, and they meet here every week to walk with each other,” Hendry said. “There’s people experiencing (the park) every day, and it's part of the fabric of their lives. I felt it was very important that there's something dynamic here that's changing throughout the year.”
In one garden bed close to the water along Beaufain Street, the white flowers of fringe trees will bloom in the spring, and purple coneflowers will bloom throughout the summer. In the fall, the sweetgrass plumes will be in “all of their glory,” and the black gums will turn bright red, Hendry said.
Robert McCombs, Charleston Parks Conservancy horticulture manager and Colonial Lake project manager, installs new plants in Colonial Lake park.
The plants are a mix of native and non-native species. The native plants include palmetto trees, black gum, American fringe tree, fiber optic buttonbush, American beautyberry, red buckeye, swamp milkweed, coneflowers, Stokes' aster, Mrs. Schiller's Delight Bluer and sweetgrass (which is part of Charleston’s cultural heritage), Hendry said.
Some of the nonnative plants include Little John bottlebrush from Australia, bulbine from South Africa, catmint and quince from the Caucasus region, olive trees and creeping thyme from the Mediterranean, and dwarf pineapple guava from South America.
“It started broadening what I thought of as native, whereas it’s not defined by state lines and only things that are native to coastal South Carolina but are native to these types of conditions (like) saltwater flooding and really hot summers,” Hendry said.
The revitalized Colonial Lake park will double as Charleston's first "idea garden" that shows parkgoers what they can do with their own home gardens, conservancy spokesperson Melissa Nelson said.
The newly revitalized Colonial Lake Park will be officially unveiled at the Bloom Charleston Festival. The two-day event will include a ticketed kickoff party on Oct. 17 and an all-day free event with speakers, immersive experiences, a plant sale, garden inspiration stations, art and live music on Oct. 18, said Darlene Heater, executive director and CEO of Charleston Parks Conservancy.
The revitalization of Colonial Lake park will be completed in the fall.
Although the festival will mark the completion of the revitalization project, the garden itself will never be completely finished, Hendry said.
“The only constant in a garden is change,” she said.
Molly Hendry, a garden designer from Birmingham, Ala., led the Parks Conservancy's efforts to transform Colonial Lake park's landscape into one that is able to withstand climate change and sea-level rise.
The plants will continue to grow and take up more space. A storm might knock out a tree. The plants that once thrived in the shade may give way to those that thrive in full sunlight. Flooding events may push some of the plants to their limits.
Hendry and the conservancy planned for this, choosing combinations of plants that are both beautiful and resilient.
The idea is that “they'll be able to withstand anything the world throws at (them),” she said.